your bones ... (open)

[Aries]

"It's better than running into things I think." Alastair was glad to have figured out the clicking quickly, making himself look like an idiot was not on his list of things to do. He wished he could see the canine's paw, knowing if it was gone, or mangled in some odd way would calm his curiosity, but unless his eyes magically started working that wasn't going to happen any time soon, as he wasn't going to ask. "You can walk and run, right? I don't see a huge problem as long as you can function. Just as I don't see (no pun intended) a problem with my blindness, I can still get around just fine." Just after he said that his paw slipped in to a dip in the ground and he tumbled over, landing harshly on his face. The feline rolled back to his paws, not even stopping to express how much his muzzle now hurt. "Let's just forget that ever happened, m'kay?" he trotted on, clicking like mad to get his bearings again.

"Yeah, food sounds good. I'm starved." the moss underneath his feet was starting to become rough grass. Maybe they were getting somewhere after all.

[crumbles]

"Yeah, but if this, uh, setback was any more extensive I wouldn't be running at all, let alone into things." He skirts around a taller rock jutting between the two and falls back into line once he catches up. After a few moments of silence, listening to Alastair talk, he nods even though the movement wouldn't be seen. "I guess you're right. Still, we've both got luxuries the other will never have. Unless, uh, you wake up tomorrow and you can miraculously see. Or I hit my leg against a rock my paw...twists back into place...let's just assume that we're stuck with these, yeah."

He jumps as the feline greets the ground and scampers over to help, but Alastair is on his feet again before he can do a thing. He snorts a low laugh and steps back again, shaking his fur off instinctively. His tone is teasing when he speaks next and his face is the visage of pure innocence. "Forget what happened?"

Vancleef raises his head and gives a small sniff of the air, not finding any trail of anything that might have been prey, but noticing little changes in the scent of the place. It seemed like it was getting a little drier, less lush and the ground was evening out the slightest bit. Bumps and holes were less frequent.

[Aries]

Alastair decides to drop the subject, dwelling on their issues wasn't going to solve anything. The canine mentioning his paw twisting into place calmed his curiosity. So it was backwards or sideways or something. Cool beans.

"Shh. Only walking now." he snickered at the canine's tone and flicked him with his tail, almost hitting his eye by mistake. "Are we getting anywhere. The ground and scents seem different. And I can't hear any trees or rocks." he scented the air, which smelled of grass. Maybe the grass was edible, he didn't think the likelihood of catching anything was high even if they found something so he bend down ant plucked a mouthful from the ground. It wasn't as bitter as he'd expected, in fact, it was quite sweet. Not something he'd want to eat more of though. "It's not bad, but it's not good either. Might as well eat what we've got, though." the feline grabbed another mouthful of the grass, sitting for a moment to chew it.

[crumbles]

Vancleef nods and puts all of his weight onto his back legs, kind of jump-digging the grass from the ground, pulling up dirt and a bug or two as well. He waits until they scurry away from the disturbed earth and burrow beneath a new patch of grass. Then he scoops some up and reluctantly chews and swallows, pulling a face at the strange taste. He didn't want sweet, he wanted meat. Still, he forces it down and then a second helping, a little more easily than the first. "Not good is right." Blades of grass are stuck to his nose, and he shakes off again but it doesn't do anything; he has to smack them off with his tongue.

"It is different. It's less of a vale and more of a...grassland. A plain. There are almost no trees from here on out. We should find water, too, because it's going to be hotter out there."

After a few more steps, a thought occurs to him. "We need to practice hunting, even if there's nothing around to catch. Because when we DO find something, if we're not able to hunt around our disabilities, it's not going to have any trouble slipping past us. Unless it's sick or injured, but not everything will be."

[Aries]

"Well it's what we have until we can find something more." the feline snorted and struggled to swallow the grass, his throat was getting dry, making him realize how thirsty he was. "Hmm. We're probably going to have to find our way out of here to find water. Is there anything in the distance? We'll need shelter too. There's bound to be predators and I'm not interested in sleeping out in the open." he rose to his feet and followed the canine again, still trying to get bits of grass down.

"What would we practice on? Grass? I think our energy would be better used getting out of this godforsaken plain, rather than messing around." he clicked in hopes of hearing something, but got nothing. There had to be water and shelter somewhere nearby, nobody would survive past the orchard if not.

[crumbles]

"I would suggest getting to some higher ground to avoid dustdevils and survey the landscape, but there is literally NO higher ground. There's a short tree aways up, but I can't climb them and you're blind. Useless." He sighs and takes his frustration out on a flower peeking out of the dirt, swatting it lightly with his twisted paw. He squints his eyes upon request and looks out as far as he can, taking an unsteady bound forward. "Um, maybe." There's a thin, perforated black line in the distance, too small to be mountains or cliffs. "I think there's a... forest up there?" The line is thicker in some places than others, denoting something not quite a forest but still too green for the plains. "Well, trees at least. It's pretty far, but where there are trees, there's water."

"For now, we can use that tree if things get rocky. It's pretty flat and its branches stretch out far out enough for more than two canines. Well, you know what I mean."

He scoffs. "Aren't you clever? Listen, I know it's warm and it's going to be a while before we reach anywhere anyone would even WANT to live, but -- " His jaw snaps shut as something scurries past him out of the corner of his eye. Emaciated and light brown, a small rodent skitters through the grass away from them. "But there is food here."

[Aries]

"We should head in that direction probably. Before it gets dark..it's always dark to me, but you get the point." he trotted in the direction he thought the canine was talking about, keeping a quick pace in hopes of at least finding something better to sleep in along the way, a cave, a dip in the ground, anything better than this.

"We could kill two birds with one stone along the way and try to find something to hunt as we travel. I'll try to keep quiet with my clicks along the way as to not scare anything off. I'll probably hear anything before we near it anyhow." his ears pricked as something moved away from them loudly. He'd been too absorbed in the conversation to notice earlier, unfortunately.

[crumbles]

Vancleef trails ahead of Alastair, making sure that he didn't walk him straight into wide cracks in the ground, or sneaky jutting stones that had the potential to trip unsuspecting, sightless felines. "Uh-huh." He keeps his eyes out for more of those rodents, but doesn't see or hear anything aboveground. Every once in a while, he thinks he feels a barely-there vibration under his paws, like something is down there running around. He brushes it off as his imagination and keeps his eyes trained on the line of trees in the distance, the dry feeling in his throat more prominent than the rumbling in the stomach.

His voice is low and soft, barely audible over the quiet breeze whistling through the grass. "Do you hear anything now? Feel anything?" He tries to lighten his own steps, but doesn't have to leverage on three paws to do it properly. He raises his nose, but when he doesn't scent anything, he lowers it to the ground and gets the faintest hint of -- he freezes up, glancing up at Alastair.

[Aries]

Alastair followed the canine closely, struggling his best to not click by instinct. Vibrations underneath his feet confused him, but that's when he came to the conclusion the the rodents were just underneath the surface. He kept quiet about it as the padded along. The scent of the rodents was faint but still there, we wasn't sure where it came from, but it was fresh.

"I can't hear anything, but I can feel them. They're underneath us, and I think I can smell an entrance to their burrows..." he trailed off in thought, an idea hit him like a train. "Okay. I have a plan, but it will be out one and only chance unless we run into more tunnels. Listen carefully. There's a main tunnel underneath us, I feel them coming and going quite often. It's not far underground, considering how strong I can feel their footfalls, so I'm going to do some careful digging to make it thin enough for me to collapse when you scare them all my way. You're going to do this by going very quietly over there until you see a hole. You will then make as much ruckus as you can." the feline carefully scrapped away at the dirt, thinning it slowly, but in a way the rodents wouldn't detect.

It didn't take long for him to get it thin enough. He'd surely be able to collapse it, but he'd have to be incredibly careful about it. "Okay. Now go, I felt several go in the direction the entrance is, get there before they do." he shoo'd the canine in the direction of the entrance.

[crumbles]

"I can't hear anything, but I can feel them. They're underneath us..."

Oh. He was about to open his mouth and suggest a game plan, but it seemed like Alastair had it all smoothed out already. He flicked his ears and listened carefully as the feline dictates. "All right, I guess a chance is better than nothing," he murmured, staying as light on his feet as possible, but still making haste to beat the rodents. A few yards ahead, he found a sizable hole in the ground that leads both to the west and north of the plains. "Get ready."

He saw the faintest streak of a coiled pink tail facing him before he makes his move, all but shoving his muzzle into the hole and snarling with an octavian volatility that startled even him. There was a soft, choked squeak from whatever lurked beneath the dirt, and the desperate scampering of paws towards Alastair. He tugged his face away from the ground but continued to growl and bark and stomp with his good foot. His voice certainly matched his looks, and for all the better it seemed. His ears flattened against his head and his fur bristled tight off his skin, even though they were obviously the ones in charge here.

"Get him!" He ordered, giving a final hard smack into the dust, growling slowly dying off.

[Aries]

Alastair waited patiently for the prefect moment. Vancleef was already making massive amounts of noise and the rodents were making their way towards him Almost... Almost... Now! He reared up on his hind legs and smacked all of his weight onto the thin patch of dirt, caving it in just as the first rodent passed under. Instinct kicked in as soon as the squirming rat was under his paws and he immediately snapped its neck between his jaws.

"I think the others ran your way again!" the feline tossed his kill to the ground and carefully scampered towards the tunnel entrance where Vancleef was.